Technical Field
The present disclosure is directed to a temperature regulated circuit and methods of fabricating the same.
Description of the Related Art
Many precision integrated circuits require a stabilized temperature to function properly. A common solution for temperature regulation is to couple the precision integrated circuit to a heater to compensate for heat loss. Namely, a heater may be used to provide heat and compensate for any heat that is dissipated from the precision integrated circuit to adjacent structures.
Current methods for heating integrated circuits include the use of hybrid thick film heaters with alumina substrates and discrete heater resistors on epoxy-glass PCB material. A well-known solution for temperature regulation is the LM399 voltage reference. Such methods, however, typically consume large amounts of power. For example, hybrid thick film heaters with alumina substrates and discrete heater resistors on epoxy-glass PCB material each typically consume 100 milliwatts to a few watts of power.
Accordingly, integrated circuits that require such heaters are generally limited in application to large, lab grade products, and are not suitable for portable devices with limited power sources. Thus, it is desirable to have a low power solution for temperature regulation of precision integrated circuits.